Re: New Manga Chapter!!

One thing I've noticed is how neither Touga nor Saionji has visibly aged through the past 20 years. I know the manga medium comes with their reality-defying aesthetics, but if you compare the two to Anime!Tokiko -- whose character also spanned decades -- the contrast is really staggering. Could it be that the guys are "Neo-Mikages" in the making? Is that why Ghost!Akio could channel them so easily. Then again, it may just be Chiho Saitou's libido . . . I mean, aesthetic preference at work . . .

Re: New Manga Chapter!!

Wow the new chap is very... odd, to say the least. First off, I liked to see touga x saionji in the manga and it is so cannon now ok. Second, I thought we would see more anthy but nope, nothing to see here. And third, I don't see where this is going. While touga got his ring, anthy still has heres unless she is dead, so will there be more duels or something like that. And will we see more miki and juri? Only time will tell...

By the way, why is the backstory of utena's ring changed? In the manga she got saved from dying and got it, but its impleid here she got it from motivation from anthy like

And I get the felling saito didn't like the movie. I think its the fact she likes her gals with cloth.

Re: New Manga Chapter!!

itavin wrote:

By the way, why is the backstory of utena's ring changed? In the manga she got saved from dying and got it, but its impleid here she got it from motivation from anthy like

I don't think this chapter has anything to do with the original manga.

It doesn't fit with the anime either, though, since Utena got her ring and saw Anthy AFTER Touga and Saionji saw her. In Touga's dream in this new chapter, he watches her go from her despair to newfound hope all of a sudden, like a third-person observer watching her in fast-forward. So I think that it's not a literal memory, more of a muddled vision.

Re: New Manga Chapter!!

Not gonna lie, I was pretty meh about the whole thing, given I didn't care for the manga. But this was pretty much all I could have asked for, realistically, and while it's kind of trippy, it's trippy in a way more congruent with the series than her own work, and I think she's improved both as a story-teller and as a manga artist. The idea of mashing together the different versions is a neat one, and it works really well for Touga and Saionji, though I wonder how it'll look later if other characters are brought in. For their part, they felt very much 'themselves,' right down to the ridiculous fighting about morality in art, something that is so them that it made my head spin. Akio is, well, a ghost, and doesn't have much personality either way, but I've always gotten the distinct impression Saito didn't like him as a character, or is just not a villain kind of person. At any rate, his background is movie Akio's though he's drawn like the series. The idea of Akio as an artist, at least series Akio, rings insanely false to me; Akio doesn't create, he consumes. Being an artist would suggest a kind of depth that's simply not there, because he grooms it out of himself.

I know this is absolutely not what the English-speaking audience on the whole wanted from new Utena content, since the weight of the fandom is definitely carried by yuri fans, and this is an unapologetic sausage-fest. But I suspect it is very, very much in line with what the Japanese audience, 20 years out, would want, and in that I relate. We'll see what the next chapter is about, but for now I'm going to be happy someone, anyone, drew anyone I like in a suit. Two of them even! She skipped Akio, but I guess dead guys don't need suits...

All in all, FUCK YEAH NEW SKU STUFF. Enjoy it for what it is! There's literally no way they could make the entire fanbase happy, so I don't envy Saito the challenge, and at least now I'm looking forward to more instead of thinking 'oh dear lord help us.'

....srs tho, Saionji dressing entirely in statement pieces? Touga wearing the French necktie? Them both ending up in the art world like the pretentious jackass fucks they are? Pretty good, Saito. Pretty, prettty good.

...as for them not visibly aging, despite being in their mid to late 30's...just...shush. There's a certain amount of artistic license I'm going to give her on this, since no one wants to see old bishonen. Also, as someone in the same age group that routinely gets mistaken for someone in their 20's...it could happen! Especially with those two, they're so vain I doubt they spend more than an hour a year in sunlight, and they probably have skin care regimens that would make Patrick Bateman blush. Yes both of them. Saionji will just act like he doesn't.

Re: New Manga Chapter!!

Yeah the "Akio made paintings" thing threw me for a loop. It made me think for a second "wait, are they talking about the original chairman? Mr. Ohtori?" (fun fact, he actually does appear for one panel in the original manga at the end) and I had to re-orient myself a bit. It's weird. Although it would explain where those paintings in the movie came from, but I don't think anything in the movie needs to be "explained".

pg23: â € Retconed how Utena was saved to match the events of the anime (mostly, still not exact, but def not what the original manga did)

pg 25:â € Utena had already met her prince? Why is she in a coffin then?â € Child Utena immediately looks for Anthy- her motivation from the anime now made to fit the manga (this is all cool with me btw, I think it's the only way to not completely ruin either the manga or anime.. or movie or the movie manga... oy vey )

pg 27:â € Utena, Touga, and Saionji ALL see the castle as kids? WHAT? And no one remembered? Oh yeah I forgot that memory loss is part of Ikuhara Bingo.... wait I forgot...does that mean...?â € Not sure if tha Ahhhhh was part of the translation or a fangirl scream, I like to think fan girl scream ('cause I know I was fan girling).

pg 31:â € This convo: 1.) Should have happened 20 years ago 2.) Makes Saionji an even bigger hypocrite and tool

pg 32:â € Is Touga's childhood sexual abuse manga canon? I don't remember it being so. If it was it would make this whole exchange even more terrible.â € Touga is starting to sound a lot like Akio

pg 35:â €â €â € Please note the dueling arena is still really in Ohtori Tower- Is this just a trick of the light? (of course it is)â € Cloths magically change upon intering the dueling arena- Makes me wanna see a hyper sexual Touga & Saionji transformation sequence like we used to have for Utena and Anthy.

pg 36:â € " We have no choice but to duel!!!" 'Cause that's the obvious choice right? lmao

pg 37:â € Saionji arguing morals

pg 40:â € Utena is now Dios (part of the manga ending). I love that Utena is the one who drops from the castle, but does that mean she is trapped inside?

pg 41:â € UTENA is sent the letter to Touga?!?!?!?!

pg 42:â € Wait, you did what??? Utena No. That's a bad revolutionary. Why are you handing out that power? Also I always took the power to Revolutionize the world as something we all must find within, not an actual magical force.

pg 43:â € Duel cum in pants

pg 44: â € Touga crying- YES!

pg 45:â € Touga & Saionji are now the new Utena and Anthy. No question about it.

pg 46:â € GIMMIE THAT BED!!!

pg 47:â € The Look on Saionji's face as he looks at Anthy.

pg: 57 & 58â € Touga & Saionji walk off in the same pose as Utena and Anthy.

--- Deepr Thoughts---

Akio as an artist is also weird to me. I get that's what he did in the movie, but ... That's the movie. The movie is its own little orb of absurdity.

So we have ghosts and haunted paintings (or at least that one). But Anthy lived. In every continuity Anthy is alive. She can't be there in the painting with Utena-Dios. WTF is happening?

Re: New Manga Chapter!!

Big thanks to everyone who made this possible to read in English!

So... I guess it's mix of every prominent Utena medium? Manga, anime and the movie? I'm waiting for the winter chapter, so Chigusa can appear and Touga confirms he banged Miki in the winter chapter for the shout-out cirle to be complete.I'm not on the fence with this being about Touga and Saionji (more so because we're getting at least one more chapter). While reading the manga I got the impression that Saito likes her leading boys with their cool outfits, nice bods, having the milkshake that brings everyone to the yard, despite them being insufferable pricks, like, most of the time (manga!Touga maybe less than anime!Touga). It makes sense to me that she would draw them first, ALTOUGH, now that we know Saito practically took every Utena medium and threw it into one bowl, I hope that - if it happens in the next chapter - Juri and Miki will be more of their anime iterations, not manga ones (manga!Juri still makes my heart clench).

I like how Utena's fate is played as a myth, raising spirits of these poor unfortunate souls and I just can't help to adore that tsunami of nostalgia pouring outta this chapter. Past in the Ohtori, friendships that were, that weird girl that always went her own way, chairman's secrets, duels - all of that was like going back to high school after 20 years and taking a stroll through the familiar walls, reliving all the dreams and expectations of adulthood that never came to fruition. Bittersweetness hides in nearly every page and it fits so well, especially for Touga.

Aaaaand since playing the Sega game (many thanks for that too, you guys rock!) I'm rapidly losing my feminist points, because I slowly start to REALLY like Saionji in a fangirl way and this chapter does not remedy that AT ALL. Seriously, if only Saionji didn't think that bitchslapping is the best way to win an argument and changed his class from berserker to something more sensible, I'd be head over heels for him.